The Training Mission, By the Numbers

The US Army III Corps’ main mission as part of Operation Inherent Resolve has been training up local forces that will retake land from ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The Corps is leaving the operation shortly, to be replaced by the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, and is leaving behind tens of thousands of newly trained soldiers, tribal fighters, and police officers to continue Iraqi momentum against ISIS. Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, commander of III Corps and Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve for the next week and a half, said on Wednesday that within the past year the coalition has trained more than 13,500 members of the Iraqi security forces, including more than 4,000 Iraqi Army soldiers, 1,500 counter terrorism service soldiers, 6,000 Peshmerga fighters, about 1,000 federal police, and 300 border guards. “These men will be key to holding the gains we’ve already achieved in protecting these newly liberated Iraqis,” MacFarland said. The trained forces have helped to liberate about a quarter of a million civilians, he said. The coalition is still training the soldiers and police officers needed to hold Mosul once it is retaken, and MacFarland did not give a timeline for when that battle would happen. “We’re going to try to get Mosul back as fast as we can,” MacFarland said. “It’s one million people living under an oppressive rule under terrible conditions and we’re going to push to get it back as fast as possible.” (See also: Setting the Stage in Mosul and The Day After Mosul is Liberated.)